Protecting device and means for using said device



June Z6, 1945. H. SCHMARION 2,379,191

PROTECTING DEVICE AND MEANS FOR USING SAID DEVICE Filed Sept. 9, 1940 Patented June 26, 1945 rarsn'r OFFICE.

rnorno'rmo DEVICE AND MEANS F USING SAID DEVICE Herman Schmarion, Bronx N. Y.

Application September 9, 1940, Serial No. 356,075

'7 Claims.

The invention relates to a new type of mine and a mechanism for operating said mine by remote control, such that a plurality of them may be operatedin succession from a similar position. In other mines, once a mine has been used, there is agap in that position, whereas in my device herein the mines may be positioned one above the other and used one after the other.

The objects of the invention are to provide a means for national defense against invading ships of any type and to avoid gaps left when one mine has been used, especially when a large number of ships are entering in a long line through a mine field. Other advantages and objects will be discussed hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a partial cross-section inelevation; Figure 2 is a cross-section of the heavy anchor showing the method of attaching means for floating same;

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic view of the electrical circuit.

The embodiment comprises, as shown in Figure 1, a sea mine which may be a giant grenade 5|, a floater chamber 5 2, which has a chamber flange 53, which snugly fits the form of the grenade 5!. The grenade pin 54 may have the form shown and is joined to the plunger pin 56 by means of the threaded tube 55. The end of the grenade pin and the plunger pin are threaded. The plunger pin 56 may be placed inside the plunger hole, as shown, the threaded tube 55 be ing entirely on it. Then the threaded tube may be turned on its threads to join with the threaded portion of the grenade pin 54. A non-magnetic cup chamber 58-, closed on its outside end as shown, is attached, at its open end, to the wall of the floater chamber 52,- as by means of soldering and angle supports 59. It is seen that the cup chamber 58 projects out beyond the side of the floater chamber 52. The magnetic plunger 51, usually of iron, is held in normal starting position partly within the cup chamber 58 by a compression spring 57A which may be attached to said plunger and to the end wall of'said cup chamber, as by soldering. When the giant grenade 5| and the floater chamber 52 are suitably supported on the anchor bar 61, as described below, a complete, though separated, solenoid is formed by the plunger 51, surrounded by the solenoid Wind.-

ing 6!, whichis inclosed in the iron core 60 and the non-magneticsolenoid tube 62, said core 60 and tube 62 forming a waterproof chamber for the coil or winding 6|. The plunger 51, when this, solenoid is formed, is partly within the holloW of said solenoid winding 6|; thus the said plunger is in" its normal starting open air gap position. Said solenoid is permanently and rigidly attached, as by means of angle supports 63, to the anchor bar 61, so that, when the'inine is released, as described below, the winding 61 core 60 and tube 62, and of course the lead wires 8|, are not moved, but remain in position, attached to the anchor system. It'is therefore easily seen that this is a great economy in that the solenoid coil remains for further use when another mine is attached or loaded on the anchor. The plunger, of, courSe being inside the floater chamber and cup chamber, moves when the 'mine is released, and is expended with them. The sea mine or giant grenade '5l, the floater chamber 52, the non-magnetic cup chamber 58 and what is in said floater chamber 52, form a permanently closed casing assembly, a portion of said giant grenade 5!, of course, as here shown, projecting out of said floater chamber 52. This permanently closedcasing assembly is a separate, complete unit for'doing work, that is,-it is a unit which floats to or-near thesurface and explodes, while completely separated from the solenoid winding El and from the remainder of the device. Permanently attached to the floater chamber 52 is a T-bar, comprisingacross-bar 64 and an anchor pin 55, the anchor pin 65 entering a hole in the anchor bar 6'! and projecting out asshown. Attached to the-anchor bar 61 is a compression spring'fifi, which spring is compressed in normal startin position and presses aaginst the crossbar 54, but is not attached to it. The attachment of said spring 66 -to said anchor bar 61 may be-made by soldering the last ring of said spring to'said anchor bar, as shown in Figure 1, or in any other suitable manner. The anchor bar 61 is attached to the heavy anchor 10, as by angle supports as shown, and may have, together with the heavy anchor, the construction as shown in Figures l and 2, one threaded tube ISA or two being attached thereto, with a threaded removable tube closure [5E being placed thereon, pending the use of the tubes 153, shown in Figure 2, and their attaching means. Thus, if re-loading is done by the means described in Figure 2, it may be desirable to place a hook 69 or attaching device through the hole 68 in the anchor bar 61, as shown in Figure 1, tokeep said anchor bar vertical when the anchor system has reached the surface. Of course, in view of the fact that no wiring is involved in re-loading the mine to the anchor system, the re-loading may be done under water, by using, for example, submarines to carry parallel.

the mines to the vicinity of the anchor system and performing the attachment.

On the other side of the anchor bar, as shown, is a second solenoid supported on the anchor bar as by angle supports I8, and comprising, besides its winding, a core IS, a non-magnetic tube 80, shown in dotted lines, and a plunger 16 which is normally in its open air-gap position, its end entering through a hole in the anchor pin 65, pressed down in this position by the compression spring I9, shown in dotted lines. A plunger support Tl may be used, for example, in the form of a ring to hold the plunger at a desired starting position. The line cable 82 is connected to the source of current or power, which may be on shore. Both above solenoid windings may be connected in series, as shown in Figure 3, or in Thus, when current is supplied by closing the circuit, the plunger 51 is attracted so that it may be moved at least further inside the hollow of the solenoid windi g causin the grenade pin 54 to be removed from'the giant grenade SI, which starts the delayed firing. Since the removal, of a grenade pinto start the delayed thing is known, art it need not be shown or described. At the same time, the plunger I6 is attracted into the hollow of its winding, releasing the anchor pin and therefore the mine. which is helped away by the expansion of the compressed spring 66-. grenade is timed to explode the grenade at or near the surface, the mine being situated, preferably, at between 100 and 200 feet below the surface, thus making it difiicult for easy detection or unwanted destructionof the mine. To re-load, of course, a new mine is attached to the position of the mine shown and described above.

A means of re-loading the device is to construct the heavy anchor III as shown in Figure 2, so that it is hollow and isfilled with granulated weight means GW, such as bits of steel, leador another heavier than water substance, preferably, such as sand; the bottom of. the anchor as at BA may be diagonal, as shown, and the anchor having at least one threaded tube ISA and threaded closure ISE, as shown. Thus, if only one threaded tube ISA is used, a tube IE8 is attached to the threaded tube ISA as indicated and air is, for example, alternately blown into and taken out of the anchor hollow by suction, so that, for example, the sand is removed, leaving the anchor hollow in temporary hollow condition, except for slight amounts of water entering while the tube ISB is being attached. The anchor becomes buoyant and floats to the surface with the anchor bar 61 and the solenoids and other reloading elements attached to it. Thus, reloading may be accomplished by a reloading ship. at the surface. Then, when new mines have been attached intoplace, the anchor hollow is again filled with thegranulated weight, as sand, which has been previously removed, and the mine is allowed to submerge. If two tubes ISB are attached, the removal of the sand is continuous by suction, when the anchor is caused to float. to the surface, at which time it is reloaded. For attaching the flexible tube I'SB to the threaded tube ISA, the flexible tube ISB has attached to it a non-revolving hard tube ISD, preferably of metal, and a revolving hard tube ISO, both of which are threaded. The revolvin ube ISC is threaded at both ends, thus allowing ior attachment to the threaded end of the threaded tube ISA. It desired, one of the threaded tubes ISA may b situated at the lower The fuse of the giant level of the diagonal bottom of the anchor, at DB. Of course, the flexible tube I53 and the tubes I and ISD are used only when emptying or filling the anchor hollow. The tube closure ISE is attached to the threaded tube ISA to keep the anchor hollow closed at all other times. In re-loading, the non-magnetic cup chamber 58 of the mine being loaded is placed into the hollow of the solenoid tube 62 and the plunger I6 of the second solenoid is placed within the hole of the anchor pin 65.

It is to be noted that the permanently closed casing assembly is an independent construction. For example, the mine assembly or the closed casing assembly may be made so that, having the same general construction, it will not be buoyant, but will rest on the bed of a shallow water area, and a person having a solenoid, battery operated, may, say, in diving suit, place the solenoid over the non-magnetic cup chamber, close the battery circuit, activate the mine, which may be timed to explode at, such a time that he will be able to reach a safe place, and say, an enemy ship on the surface may be sunk thereby. The man goes away with the solenoid and battery, both to be used on another mine. It will be seen, also, that the permanently closed casing assembly remains closed, that is, air-tight and water tight, regardless of whether anything is attached to it or detached'from it. The permanently closed casing assembly is readily seen to be an independent unit, doing its own work, independently of the solenoid, and even when completely detached from the solenoid. Although a portion of the sea mine or giant grenade projects from the floater chamber, the snug attachment of said sea mine to said floater chamber is air-tight and water tight, even when the solenoid is not attached to the said closed casing assembly. Thus, the projecting part of the sea mine or giant grenad forms part of the outside contour of the permanently closed casing assembly of which it is a part. .It will be also notedv that the solenoid, in at least some uses, may be placed in juxtaposition to the plunger at certain times, only intermittently, to be efiective.

It is understood that variations of the above mechanism may be made within the spirit and scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. A device of the class described, comprising means for doin work, said means including a movable member which, when moved in a pre-- arranged manner, causes said means to commence doing work, a chamber, a non-magnetic cup attached to said chamber with its open end opening into said chamber, the remainder of said non-magnetic cu projecting out beyond said chamber, a plunger ofhigh magnetic permeability movably situated at least partially inside of said cup, one end of said plunger being attached to said movable member, at least a part of said means being inside of said chamber, said means, said plunger, said chamber and said non-magnetic cup being attached. together so as to form a. permanently closed casing assembly. I

2. A device of the class described according to claim 1, and a solenoid winding, said winding being situated around said non-magnetic cup so as to move said plunger in said cup by magnetic action in a desired direction when said winding is excited.

3. A device of the class described according to claim 1, and means for moving said plunger in said cup by magnetic action in a desired direction, said means being placed around said nonmagnetic cup.

4. A device of the class described comprising a sea mine, a floater chamber attached thereto, a firing pin movably attached to the lower part of said sea mine and extending out from it and into said floater chamber, a non-magnetic cup attached to said floater chamber its open end opening into said chamber, the remainder of said cup, including the closed end, projecting out beyond said chamber, a plunger of high magnetic permeability movably situated at least partly inside of said cup, one end of said plunger being attached to said firin pin, said sea mine, said floater chamber, said non-magnetic cup and said plunger being attached to each other so as to form a permanently closed casing assembly.

5. A device of the class described, comprising means for doing work, said means including a movable member which, when moved in a prearranged manner, causes said means to commence doing work, a chamber, a non-magnetic cup attached to said chamber with its open end opening into said chamber, the remainder of said non-magnetic cup projecting out beyond said chamber, a plunger of high magnetic permeability movably situated at least partly inside of said cup, one end of said plunger being attached to said movable member, at least a part of said means being inside of said chamber, said means, said plunger, said chamber and said non-magnetic cup being attached together so as to form a permanently closed casing assembly, and a solenoid winding, said winding bein situated around said non-magnetic cup so as to move said plunger in said cup by magnetic action in a desired direction when said winding is excited, anchoring means for said device, said solenoid winding being permanently attached on said anchoring means, means for temporarily attaching said permanently closed casing assembly on said anchoring means and .means for detaching said permanently closed casing assembly from said anchoring means.

6. A device of the class described, comprising means for doing work, said means including a movable member which, when moved in a prearranged manner, causes said means to commence doing work, a chamber, anon-magnetic cup attached to said chamber with its open end opening into said chamber, the remainder of said non-magnetic cup projecting out beyond said chamber, a plunger of high magnetic permeability movably situated at least partly inside of said cup, one end of said plunger being attached to said movable member, at least a part of said means being inside of said chamber, said means, said plunger, said chamber and said nonmagnetic cup being attached together so as to form a permanently closed casing assembly, a solenoid winding; said winding being situated around said non-magnetic cup so as to move said 'said anchoring means, and means for raising and lowering said anchoring means at will by increasing and decreasing the buoyancy of said anchoring means.

'7. A device of the class described comprising a sea mine, a floater chamber attached thereto, a firing pin movably attached in the lower part of said sea mine and extending out from it into saidfloater chamber, a non-magnetic cup attached to said floater chamber, its open end opening into said chamber, the remainder of said cup, including the closed end, projecting out beyond said chamber, a plunger of high magnetic permeability movably situated at least partly inside of said cup, one end of said plunger being attached to said firing pin, an anchor, an anchor bar attached to said anchor, a first solenoid attached on said anchor bar, said non-magnetic cup being normally situated therein, a second solenoid attached to said anchor bar, an

anchor pin attached to said floater chamber and entering through a hole in said anchor bar, a plunger of high magnetic permeability in said second solenoid, a non-magnetic plunger support on said plunger, said plunger, in its normal starting position extending partly out of said second solenoid and entering a hole in said anchor pin, thus keeping said floater chamber attached to said anchor bar, a compression spring attached between said second solenoid and said plunger support for pressing said plunger into said hole, said plunger support preventing said plunger from moving too far out of said solenoid, a compression spring attached to said anchor bar and pressing against said floater chamber, to cause it to move readily when released, an anchor chamber attached to said anchor'bar, said anchor chamber having at least one opening, a closure for said opening, said closure being attachable and removable, said anchor chamber being filled with matter heavier than water in granulated form and means for withdrawing said matter from and re-filling said matter in said anchor chamber.

HERMAN SCHMARION. 

